Our Family Unit - Confessions of a Vintage Homemaker

I prefer the word 'homemaker' because 'housewife' always implies that there may be a wife someplace else. ~ Bella Abzug

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January21st

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Pantry Organization with Vinyl Labels

Posted in: HouseWifery, My Kitchen, Refurbishing, Slice of Life

Welcome to my sad, crowded, disorganized mess of a pantry. It has needed some TLC for quite some time, but I never got around to doing anything about it until last September I couldn’t take it anymore. That’s when I saw a couple of pantry redos on Pinterest and got inspired. So I set to work organizing, pulled things out, thought about new placement, emptied ugly store containers to fill labeled Tupperware that I had on hand and stuffed everything back in. Sadly, the picture above is what it looked like AFTER I “organized”. All that energy and the result was that Kyle couldn’t find his cereal in the morning because it was on a different shelf! So, deflated, I walked away for a few weeks. Then my mom came in October and re-inspired me. We went to IKEA, land of great cheap organization, and talked paint color and label design. My Silhouette Cameo didn’t arrive in time to do the vinyl labels with her, but I started on those a few weeks later. Right before Christmas, Kyle convinced me to paint and get rid of the tacky contact paper and finally this week, I finished painting the shelves. After 6 months, it’s finally complete and I love it!

A little paint and a few cute containers and organizational tools made such a difference!

One of the best ideas was to use the door space. Although Kyle raised his eye brows a bit at the red baskets (his quote after I told him what I wanted to use them for, “OK, but what are they supposed to be used for?”). And I LOVE having the spices there, hanging pretty on the door, easy to see, easy to reach. Perfect! I told Kyle it was what I’d “always wanted” and he said if he’d known a magnetic board and tin cans would make me this happy, he would have done it a long time ago. Lesson: Better Communication – the key to every good marriage! Oh well.

The Silhouette was a godsend. It was so easy to use and I loved how the vinyl labels turned out. It had a little trouble doing the tiny labels for the spice cans, not because it wouldn’t cut the vinyl, just that the little bits it was cutting out tended to get caught in the blade. It was more trouble to apply the labels than make them. I’ve read that transfer paper makes this part easier, so if I ever need to do this again, I think I will go that route.

One thing that I think made my pantry so ugly before is all the little packages of junk that make it look like the baking aisle threw up on the shelf. So I bought these cute boxes at IKEA and labeled them too. Now the popcorn salt, taco seasoning, bread crumbs, marshmallows, etc are all hidden away and not cluttering up my pretty pantry.

Now for a little Before & After:

Top Shelf – before everyday items like cereal and bread were hidden among all the unopened Costco stash. After, it’s reserved for the unopened food items and a few big container spices.

2nd Shelf – before the stacking of stuff drove me crazy whenever I needed something on the bottom, but after I put those white wire shelves to better use and fixed my container issue with new coordinating ones.

Third Shelf – before I could never find the can I was looking for and always bought more of what I already had by mistake. After, the can organizer and red boxes cleaned up the clutter.

4th Shelf – I’m not sure why I don’t have a before pic but the after speaks for itself.

Bottom Shelf – before it was packed with stash items always looked cluttered. After, most things are hidden in the black container and what’s out can be neatly stacked. And who doesn’t love a basket of root veggies, right?

I’ve finally completed what may have been the most unnecessarily long project EVER. But I really do enjoy it. The red makes me happy when I open the door and I love that it’s so much more usable now. Shoulda done this a long time ago…

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January18th

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Family Night – Pumpkin Pancakes and Angry Birds

Posted in: HouseWifery, Our Traditions, Slice of Life

I almost forgot I wanted to share about our first Family Night, if I don’t I will completely forget everything that happened since I didn’t take a single picture. So instead, let’s pretend that Kade did this to my kitchen when he was making dinner and that it wasn’t me who emptied the entire contents of the pantry in order to paint shelves this afternoon.

Kade and I made pumpkin pancakes with “raisin faces”, which to the untrained eye might have looked like raisin polka dots. Kyle suffered through one of my favorite traditions, eating breakfast food for dinner. He put on a brave face for the kids though, and was thankful for the bacon.

After dinner we played a new game that Kade had received for Christmas, Angry Birds. It was a fun night, nothing off the charts. But it’s another one of our New Year goals (I like that term better than resolutions). We are trying to be intentional about creating stability in Our Family Unit. We want to be building an atmosphere of unconditional love and acceptance, where we can all let down our guard and be exactly who we are without fear. One of the things that does that is Quality Time. We figure at 3 and 1, our kids are pretty happy to spend an evening with us; but unless we make it a regular part of normal every day life, they might have to be physically tied to a chair to do it when they’re teenagers. We want Family Night to be focused on the kids, to hopefully give them something to look forward to, where they’re in charge of food and entertainment, where we are willing to set aside parental control on nutrition and our definition of fun and let them pick.

Parenting…the Great Experiment…we’ll see how it nets out.

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January17th

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Foodies in Training – Part 2

Posted in: HouseWifery, My Kitchen, Our Traditions, Slice of Life
As per the great knowledge source Wikipedia, foodies are amateurs who simply love food for the consumption, study, preparation, and news. Kyle and I certainly meet the first criteria…we love consuming! But in an effort to fulfill the other three, we continued on our “Foodies in Training” journey Sunday night with installment #2.

On the menu this time was Cedar-Plank Salmon, Spicy Pasta Salad with Smoked Gouda, Grape Tomatoes and Basil and for dessert, Lemon Gelato.

The salmon was fun. I got to pull out the unopened cedar planks that were given to us as a house warming gift no less than 5 years ago. (No, we weren’t stuck in a rut food-wise!) The recipe came from an old Real Simple magazine and seasoned the salmon with brown sugar, thyme and a little cayenne pepper.

My salmon fillet wasn’t as big as what the recipe called for, so I cut the time down but I think I should have been watching it even more closely. Kyle thought it was great, but I thought it was a bit dried out and I should have taken it off the grill about 3-4 minutes sooner than I did.

Next we discover why I’m not a real food blogger, pho-tog-ra-phy skills! Let’s take a moment to admit that these photos are crap, but until I get a light studio or we start eating our foodie meal in the daylight, you may need to mentally prepare yourself for a bit of visual agony here. I’ll try to do better next time, I promise…

This was the Spicy Pasta Salad from Pioneer Woman. There was nothing actually wrong with the salad itself. I love Gouda and grape tomatoes. The dressing was just tangy enough and the brilliantly green basil added just the right flavor. It would have been great at a backyard BBQ or a picnic while camping, but it was not the thing to pair with Cedar-Plank salmon. I should have done a warm side…totally my fault…it brought the whole meal down in my book. Gol dang it!

Luckily, the meal did not end on a sad note. We cleared away the plates and brought out the star of the night, homemade lemon gelato, the William-Sonoma recipe is below. It was heavenly! We even learned a bit about gelato (going for the “study” points here) vs ice cream. Gelato has a lower fat content than ice cream, which in turn gives it a more intense flavor (less fat to coat your mouth means that lemon flavor can really hit home!) There’s also less overrun (air) mixed into it, so it’s denser than ice cream. And one last thing, it served at a slightly warmer temperature than ice cream to keep it creamy. Gelato has a higher water content than ice cream so freezing it solid would create ice crystals, making it grainy instead of smooth. And now you know…

So for the overall rating of the night…Kyle and I differed. He really liked the salmon and gave the night a 7.5. I thought the salmon was dry, the pasta was definitely the wrong choice but the gelato almost made up for the other sins, so gave it a 6.

Here’s looking to next week…tri-tip.
Lemon Gelato
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Recipe type: Dessert

Author: Williams-Sonoma

Prep time: 30 mins

Cook time: 10 hours

Total time: 10 hours 30 mins

Serves: 12

The brisk, refreshing taste of lemon is always welcome after a meal. In this velvety ice cream, creme fraiche contributes richness and a flavor reminiscent of cheesecake.
Ingredients

1 cup half-and-half

1 cup heavy cream

3 lemons

3/4 cup sugar

6 egg yolks

1 cup creme fraiche or heavy cream
Instructions

In a nonaluminum saucepan, combine the half-and-half and cream. Using a vegetable peeler, remove the zest of 1 lemon in long strips. Add to the cream mixture. Place over medium heat and bring just to a simmer.

Meanwhile, grate the zest from the remaining 2 lemons. In a food processor, combine the sugar and grated lemon sest and process until well mixed. In a bowl, combine the egg yolks and lemon sugar. Whisk until pale and smooth. Slowly whisk in the hot cream, then return the mixture to the saucepan and place over medium-low heat. Cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the mixture visibly thickens and coats the spoon, about 4 minutes. Do not allow it to boil or it will curdle.

Remove from the heat and stir for 1 minute. Let cool for 15 minutes, then whisk in the creme fraiche. Cover and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, about 8 hours.

Strain the mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions. To serve, scoop the gelato into serving dishes. Makes about 1 1/2 quarts.
Google Recipe View Microformatting by Easy Recipe

2.2.1
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January14th

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Siblings at the Park

Posted in: HouseWifery, My Kitchen, Our Traditions, Slice of Life

I’m in a bit of a reminiscent mood this morning, hence the photo editing above. Bear with me…

My brother Jacob and I are the same age apart as Kade & Berlin, except that in my case, I was the older one. I like to imagine that I was as nice to him as Kade is to Berlin, but in reality…there are stories. Like me feeding him pennies when he was an infant or coaxing him to touch the oranges that Mom had forbidden us to touch or Dad coming downstairs to find Jacob crying, with a red hand print across his face.

Dad: “Did you hit your brother?”

Me: “Nope”

Lucky for Berlin, Kade is a very sweet older sibling (most of the time).

We went to the park this week to burn off a little energy. It was a gorgeous day and we had a great time!

Just want to give a little shout out to my cousin, Amanda. One afternoon about 20 years ago, she and I went to a thrift store and found the tiniest clothes we could. They were so small and so cute and she might have been a little baby crazy and pulled me into her craziness. (I blame her entirely!) But I ended up saving a pair of shoes and a little plaid vest and this jumper for 20 years so that one day my baby girl could wear them. But of course, I lost them and forgot about them. After Christmas, we cleaned out the garage and guess what I found buried in a plastic storage tub! Only problem, my baby girl wasn’t a baby anymore and this little jumper was the only thing that fit. I couldn’t help but think how things have turned out just like I imagined 20 years ago. Am I lucky, or what?!

On to the playground…below he is ignoring me and she is blowing me kisses. Together it’s a good balance.

Priceless!

Hope everyone is having a good weekend. Tonight is our first “Family Night”, Kade is making dinner and we’ll all play a game or two. Then tomorrow night we hope to have installment #2 of “Foodies in Training”. I’ll try to keep this updated.

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